Lil Peep Dead at 21

The rap world has lost yet another talented artist far too soon. Last night, Long Island, N.Y. native Lil Peep passed away at the age of only 21. Peep's manager, Chase Ortega, was the first to break the tragic news.

“I’ve been expecting this call for a year. Mother fuck,” he wrote in a tweet. First Access Entertainment CEO Sarah Stennett, whose company first partnered with Peep in 2016, has issued a statement on the rapper's untimely death.

“I am shocked and heartbroken," she says in a statement. "I do not believe Peep wanted to die, this is so tragic. He had big goals and dreams for the future which he had shared with me, his team, his family and his friends. He was highly intelligent, hugely creative, massively charismatic, gentle and charming. He had huge ambition and his career was flourishing. I have spoken to his mother and she asked me to convey that she is very, very proud of him and everything he was able to achieve in his short life. She is truly grateful to the fans and the people who have supported and loved him.”

Peep passed away before his show in Tuscon, Ariz. The rapper was two shows away from closing out his Come Over When You're Sober Tour, which started in October. A spokesman for the Tucson Police Department said cops found evidence suggesting that Peep died of an overdose of the anti-anxiety medication Xanax, according to The New York Times.

The official cause of death has not been announced, though Adam Grandmaison, host of popular podcast No Jumper, tweeted last night he'd heard Peep was in the hospital after overdosing. Peep's friend Bexey Swan posted a video of Lil Peep on his Snapchat at some point last night, and it showed Peep passed out in the back of the tour bus. When news of Peep's death broke, some thought Bexey's video actually showed a deceased Lil Peep, but Bexey later denied it on Twitter: "FUCK U. HE WAS SNORING, JUST FELL ASLEEP. LIKE I WOULD LAUGH AT MY BROTHERS DEAD BODY, U SICK FUCK."

What had long since been revealed, though, was the young rapper's talent and the scope of his vision. Speaking with us for The Break last May, Peep, who blended the sounds of alternative rock and hip-hop, spoke on his goals in the rap game. One of them was to leave his mark on the musical landscape. The other was to use music to help others the way it helped him.

“My goal in music is to save people’s lives like how my life was saved," said Peep, who came out as bisexual a few months ago. "I was very suicidal and depressed and I was addicted to some drugs and a lot of different artists helped me get out of that with their direct lyrics. It’s amazing how specific some lyrics are. Sometimes you feel like an artist is talking directly to you. That’s what I try to do with my music. I try to think about different problems people are having."

Lil Peep, born Gustav Ahr, addressed some of those problems when he dropped his Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1 album back in August, and his fans were even on his mind in his last days alive. In two of his final social media posts, Peep shouted out his fans, with one calling to free one of them from jail, and the other simply being a picture.

"Free my biggest fan Nick Bons I love u," he wrote in a tweet. "Look at my beautiful fans awwwww," he captioned another photo of three fans.

In one of his last posts, Peep appeared to be distraught. "I just wana be everybody's everything I want too much from people but then I don't want anything from them at the same time u feel me I don't let people help me but I need help but not when I have my pills but that's temporary one day maybe I won't die young and I'll be happy? What is happy I always have happiness for like 10 seconds and then it's gone. I'm getting so tired of this," he wrote.

Rappers like Post Malone, iLoveMakonnen, Pouya and many others have paid tribute to Peep on social media. See some of their posts below.

XXL has reached out to Peep's rep for comment. We send his family and friends our deepest condolences.